


To the Moon and Back

by Moonmist_Fire



Category: Victorious (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Cute, Drama, Drama & Romance, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, F/F, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, NASA, Space Flight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-02
Updated: 2020-02-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:56:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22531342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moonmist_Fire/pseuds/Moonmist_Fire
Summary: Cat really does love her Jadey - all the way to the moon, all the way back, all the space in between - and even more after that.
Relationships: Cat Valentine & Jade West, Cat Valentine/Jade West
Comments: 21
Kudos: 60





	1. Earth

**19 OCTOBER 2024. THE WEST RESIDENCE.**

“So,” Jade said after a comfortable silence, reaching for another slice of pizza. “Are you nervous?”

“Nervous? Of course not!” Cat grinned. She was munching her slice happily, her legs rested on Jade’s lap. They were sprawled out together on their couch, the TV playing quietly in the background, the pizza box open on the coffee table. “It’s not like they’d send me there if I wasn’t ready.”

Jade only stared at her for a second before shaking her head in disbelief. That woman really was crazy. “You will _never_ fail to amaze me, Cat. You were terrified at our wedding, but you’re not even batting an eyelid about going to the fucking _moon.”_

“There’s a reason for that,” Cat giggled and let the light from their chandelier snatch up the diamonds on her ring finger with a happy glow. She turned it in the light and examined the centermost stone: a smooth, polished moon rock that never failed to make Cat's heart skip.

Five years ago, Jade had begged NASA to give her just a teensy little piece of moon rock for the ring, and when they had surrendered to her, she’d begged them again to keep it a secret from Cat. Months later, on the day of their anniversary (the Christmas Eve of 2019, Cat remembered fondly), Jade had greeted Cat after a training session in the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. That on its own was enough to delight Cat to the point of giddiness. And then, Jade had started to speak, and had gotten down on one knee…

They had kissed and kissed and kissed, enclosed within the circle of applauding scientists and astronauts, as Cat had told her _yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!_ And Cat was so over the moon that, for the rest of the day, she couldn’t open her mouth without simultaneously throwing her arms around Jade’s neck and crying and professing her love to her all over again.

Cat grinned at the memory and was suddenly swept up by some deep thought, pondering it intensely before speaking again.

“They’ve trained me for years. All the simulations… all the going underwater to practice… all the wearing the suit and walking and jumping around in it… It was just like a rehearsal for a play, if rehearsals could last years and if the play could last two months. I’ve gone through those motions so many times, there isn’t any way I could possibly mess it up now. Not to mention that our team is working so hard to keep me safe. I’ve got a million bajillion pairs of eyes on me at all times, making sure nothing goes wrong.

“At our wedding, we only had a couple of months to practice, and then when it was happening, I just _knew_ something was gonna go wrong. Because I wasn’t acting. Everything we were feeling was real. We were rehearsing for something real, and real things get messy… Not just that, but I was nervous because we _didn’t_ have a million gajillion pairs of eyes watching our every move, and we _hadn’t_ had years to train, and I was _so_ sure my brother was gonna ruin _something,_ and you’re just so perfect and beautiful and when I saw you standing there in your dress and you looked so stunning I couldn’t breathe while I was walking down the aisle, I was - I was so scared you were making a mistake because how on Earth could I ever be enough for you, and I -”

Cat was cut off quickly by a soft, sweet kiss into which she was promptly melting. Jade reached out and pulled Cat into her lap. Cat’s curtained, scarlet hair fell upon Jade’s shoulders and began mixing with Jade’s black, their colors melding together until they became a single dark, muddy hue, a rich crimson that tasted like lip gloss and shortening breaths, because if there was anything they hadn’t outgrown, it was the lip gloss and the hormones. When they pulled apart after many minutes to gulp down air, the bottom of Jade’s shirt had curled up to the collar, and Cat’s top was on the floor. They stared at each other for a moment, breathless, and burst into laughter, coming together and making crimson again, just a joyful pile of sighs, and swoons, and the occasional chuckle, on the couch.

When they finally lay again, stilled by relief and satisfaction, Cat was lying on top. Jade’s fingers were combing through her wife’s silky hair, and she was humming quietly, the heavenly sound nearly lulling Cat to sleep. “I didn’t make a mistake,” Jade murmured as Cat’s eyes were closing. “I don’t regret a thing.”

Cat stirred once as Jade scooped her up bridal style to carry her to their bed, and once again as Jade was tucking the both of them in. The second time she stirred, it was enough to wake up completely, and she wrapped her arm around Jade’s middle and rested her head on her shoulder.

“Did I wake you up?” whispered Jade as she nuzzled her cheek against Cat’s head.

“No, I would’ve woken up anyway,” Cat smiled, even though she knew Jade couldn’t see it. She was reaching around to Jade’s arm and was stroking it softly, toying with the peach fuzz, just feeling Jade exist against her for what would be the last time for a long time. Jade was thinking the very same thing; if she sat still enough, she could feel the world turning, swirling around them, gentle in its waltzing. Without realizing it, Jade felt a curious tightness in her chest before the tears began streaming down her cheeks. She took a shuddery breath, and Cat sat upright, reaching over to turn on the lamp.

“Oh, Jadey, what’s wrong?” Cat asked. She climbed on top of Jade’s stomach and leaned down to kiss the tears away; Jade was frantically trying to wipe her face so Cat wouldn’t have to see her cry. She knew Cat hated seeing her sad.

“Y-You’ll… you’ll call me whenever you can, right?” Jade croaked. Her hands were shaking when she framed Cat’s cheeks with her hands, holding her close but far away enough to admire her.

“Oh, Jade… I thought something happened. Don’t scare me like that,” Cat sighed in relief. She brushed her fingers through Jade’s curls, chuckling. “I promise, buttercup. Every chance I get.”

Jade sniffled and wrapped her arms tight around Cat’s figure. She loved to hate that nickname. “Something _did_ happen. You’re leaving me for a whole two months, and you’re not even gonna be on the same planet as me. You’re not gonna be on a planet at all.”

“We’re gonna be just fine. You’re gonna be just fine,” Cat cajoled. She pressed feathery kisses into Jade’s hair and forehead.

“Yeah, _we_ and _I_ are all fine and dandy, but what about you?”

Cat laughed at that. “I’ll be okay, too. Promise.”

Jade didn’t seem satisfied, so Cat kept cradling her close and giving her kisses.

After a few moments, Cat chuckled to herself. “If someone had told me back when we were in Hollywood Arts that in ten years, my wife, _the_ Jade West, would be crying over the fact that I was leaving for the moon the next day, I would’ve thought that person was crazy.”

Jade laughed at that, rubbing her eyes. “Yeah, and you would’ve done that cute laugh and been all like, _‘You’re so silly! I’ll never be an astronaut, and Jadey would never cry over me!’”_

Cat laughed again and leaned down so their faces were parallel. Her forearms rested on the pillow and bracketed Jade’s head. She was still grinning as she nuzzled Jade’s nose softly with her own; Jade felt familiar butterflies flutter in her stomach as she reflected the smile, reaching up to tangle her fingers in her lover’s hair. They kissed softly, once, twice, three times.

“But I’d hope,” Cat said suddenly, after a while.

“Hm?”

“I’d hope that the person who told me that I’d be your wife was telling me the truth. I had a _huge_ crush on you.” In the lamp glow, Cat blushed faintly. “I still do.”

“Oh my gosh, _still?”_ Jade chuckled. She stroked Cat’s cheeks with her thumbs, grinning widely now. “Well, I can’t say much. I had a crush on you then and now, too.”

They kissed again, long and slow, just moving together and feeling everything else dissolve into space. Not faltering once, Cat fumbled for the lamp and shut it off before taking Jade’s hands and placing them on her back, where they slid further and further down until they were holding Cat firmly, possessively. Cat hummed softly before she broke away from the kiss, peppering small kisses across Jade’s jaw before she trailed down to her neck. She felt Jade’s chest rumble beneath her own with a laugh.

“Don’t start something you can’t finish, baby…” Jade hummed, and she was caressing Cat lovingly.

“Who said I can’t finish?” Cat murmured against hot flesh, and Jade was quite pleased at that.

They gasped and sighed and laughed together again for some time. Cat showed Jade the stars; she watched Jade watch them burst in front of her eyes as she curved upwards, her appreciation showing through the way she dug her nails in while the light show happened. Cat always loved watching that. Afterwards, Jade had some idea about how Cat was going to feel up above, floating dizzily among the nearby stars.

They collapsed upon each other and fell asleep soon, and Jade dreamed vividly.

It was a snapshot from the past, one of her dearest memories; one she had kept tucked away in her mind; one she reviewed often. In it, she saw her beautiful Catarina West, approaching her uncertainly, her lacy-gloved fingers trembling upon her father’s arm. There were the tumbling waves of Cat’s dress that spilled from her hips, fitted snugly against the form of her torso, giving way to the ivory lace at her collarbones and shoulders. Beneath the cascading veil, Cat’s eyes shimmered as she tilted her head up to meet Jade’s nervously, her eyes burning with love and affection. She saw the way Cat’s chest stopped when she looked at Jade, and felt the threat of tears almost immediately. Over and over, Jade saw Cat rising to meet her, her chin tilting up, the twinkle bright in her eye as her teeth flashed.


	2. Moon

**20 OCTOBER 2024. KENNEDY SPACE CENTER.**

Early in the morning, they rose wordlessly, showered, and ate breakfast before hopping in the car and heading to the space center. Jade drove the two of them, for old times’ sake, and she felt her throat swelling as the huge NASA sign and American flag rose formidably into view. Her grip tightened on the wheel and tears were beginning to prick the corners of her eyes when she felt Cat’s hand upon her arm. Blinking away the tears, she turned to see Cat smiling fondly back at her. Cat took her hand, and though the pain lingered, it was now stained with tenderness.

Cat reached out and turned on the radio, flipping through the stations casually, even though they both knew there was only one thing that would be on any of them. Sure enough, when Cat removed her hand from the dial -

_“...the time is 5:27 AM. Throngs of people are currently parading in Times Square and Washington, all eager to view the historical event that will transpire today at the Kennedy Space Center. Soon, in the historic mission dubbed 'Hestia 24,' twenty-five year old Dr. Catarina West will become the youngest person in space, the first woman on the moon, and the first human to set foot on the lunar south pole.”_

Jade smiled proudly. Cat had told her everything she knew about the lunar south pole, and everything nobody knew. She had told Jade about how it had tilted five degrees from where it had been billions of years ago, and how it was pockmarked with craters and depressions, looking like it had been pummeled until swirling patterns of crevices and dips and slopes were scarred into it. She had told Jade about how it was especially interesting to scientists because of the water ice that had been discovered in the perpetually dark areas around it, and how there was a mountain there, called the Epsilon Peak, that was taller than any mountain on Earth. She had told Jade about the most interesting basin on the moon, the South Pole-Aitken Basin, and how just beyond it, the many craters whorled together at the very bottom of the moon. She had told Jade that the insides of the craters that existed on the lunar south pole didn’t make direct contact with sunlight. At that, Jade had told her that when she set foot in those craters, they _would_ make direct contact with sunlight, and Cat had laughed at how sweet and corny that was.

All too soon, they were parked. Jade turned off the engine and let her head fall back onto the headrest, shutting her eyes. She felt Cat squeeze her hand and turned her head to look at that smiling face, the sight making her heart swell.

"I'll be back before you know it," Cat reminded her gently, stroking the back of her hand with her thumb. Jade allowed herself a small smile and leaned forward to meet Cat above the console. They kissed, soft and tentative, and Jade remembered the first time they had done that.

It had been on one of their late-night ice cream runs. They had often gone on midnight outings like that, when they would simply drive circles around LA, singing along to the radio and splurging on food; but this one was special. It was the first night they were going on one of these runs as an official couple, and Jade had been trying her hardest not to show how nervous she was. She had gotten out of the car and bought their ice creams (vanilla for herself, strawberry with extra hot fudge for Cat) before sliding back into the driver's seat, handing the ice cream to her delightedly humming girlfriend. They started singing along to their favorite song on the radio, and Jade had felt the tension leave her as she watched the girl next to her somehow sing and dance and eat ice cream all while sitting in the passenger seat, and she wondered why on earth she'd been so nervous in the first place. When the song had finished, Cat had leaned down, giggling, to lick her ice cream cone, but she'd ended up with a little smudge of hot fudge on her nose. Jade had chuckled - _precious,_ she remembered thinking - and leaned forward to wipe it away with her thumb, but then she'd frozen because she'd seen the way Cat was suddenly looking at her like she wanted something, and she'd heard _Fly Me to the Moon_ begin playing softly on the radio, and suddenly Cat was pressed against her, lips cold but melting fast against Jade's lips, tasting like strawberries and chocolate.

Jade was thrust unceremoniously back to the present when Cat broke away. She smiled apologetically at Jade, reaching up to brush her knuckles against Jade's cheek. "We'd better head out. They're waiting."

"You're right," Jade sighed, turning to kiss Cat's hand before opening the car door uncertainly and stepping outside. Cat followed suit.

Immediately, several uniformed scientists approached the car and greeted the pair politely. They shifted their attention to Cat and began discussing technical matters as Jade grew restless; Cat, noticing this, smiled and suddenly leaned in towards one of the scientists and said something secretly. The scientist laughed and responded with “Sure!” Jade had a feeling that what Cat had said had something to do with her, but she hadn’t the time to ask about it, as at that very moment, a crowd of photographers and news stations appeared from thin air and began swarming about them noisily. Jade and Cat were ushered hurriedly inside the space center as the reporters begged for comment from the pair, to no avail.

The only time Cat released Jade’s hand was once to be helped into her space suit, and a second time when she pulled herself up into the little boxlike car that was to cart them to the launch pad. Cat turned back when she climbed in, extending her hand to Jade with a smile.

“They don’t let civilians in here, usually,” Cat grinned sheepishly, “but I made them let you join us.”

Jade took Cat’s hand, smiling one of her rare smiles, and hoisted herself up onto the ledge. “Good, because if I had to say goodbye to you right there, I would be bawling.”

Cat chuckled and wrapped her arms around Jade’s neck to kiss her cheek. Jade laughed, Cat frowning at how her bulky space suit prevented that much movement. Jade began tickling Cat’s sides gently through the thick material. “You’re a marshmallow,” she whispered, half to distract herself from the imminent rush of sorrow, and half to distract Cat from it.

“I'm your marshmallow,” Cat giggled, nuzzling Jade’s neck as the car shook and growled to life, signalling the beginning of the journey to the launch pad.

They sat together in silence for the journey, Jade’s arm wrapped around Cat’s shoulders, Cat’s face pressed against her chest. Several minutes in, Jade’s shirt dampened, and Jade squeezed her wife lovingly, kissing her cheeks, tasting the salty, rueful dew that was streaking there.

“Don’t forget me,” Cat whispered when they embraced tearfully beneath the scaffolding. “Please. I love you; I love you more than anything.”

“I could never forget you,” Jade breathed. She pulled away, staring at the glittering toffee eyes, and kissed her, and kissed her, and kissed her, hoping the embrace said everything she couldn't. “I love you, too. More than everything."

Cat had to be torn from her wife by the scientists. Jade covered her mouth with a trembling hand as she watched Cat hobble towards the elevator in the scaffolding, watched it shutter closed, watched Cat’s eyes stay trained on her the entire way up. When she was completely out of view and had disappeared into the towering shuttle, Jade finally afforded herself the opportunity to notice the grandness of it all; she drank in the sight of the blinking, gleaming scaffolding that framed the infernal vessel. The long, metal arms of it, its towers of white, orange, and gray, the sheer dimension, all came in to view with greater capacity as Jade was gingerly escorted away into the observation gantry. As she took her place among the observers, watching the shuttle from much farther away now, Jade wondered how something so breathtaking could be so cruel.

It was within hours that the fateful voice emerged. Jade had been expecting it; so why was it that, when it boomed those dastardly words, her chest throbbed?

_T-minus sixty seconds and counting._

Jade staggered to a wall and rested against it, not tearing her eyes away from the white smoke billowing from the ship. Her heart was racing, and a curious throbbing in her head was almost all she could hear. There were throngs of people around her, but no one recognized her, and she was content with that. There was no one but her and the ship.

_T-minus fifty seconds and counting._

Drops of sweat beaded upon the back of her neck, and she didn’t recognize it. She watched the world ripple with rumblings and murmurs of the shuttle.

_T-minus forty seconds and counting._

Why did it go that quickly? Surely they could cancel the launch. Surely astronauts were allowed to turn back. Weren't they?

_T-minus twenty seconds and counting._

No, it was happening too quickly. Jade wanted to reach out to the ship, snatch it up with her hands and beg it to free her wife. It was too soon. Jade’s mind swarmed with every word she had said, and every word she hadn't.

_T-minus ten seconds. Astronaut Catarina_ _West reports that it feels just fine, and that her wife shouldn’t worry._

Jade gulped. She couldn’t figure if that last part was real or imagined.

_Nine. Ignition sequence, start._

A thunderous roar exploded from the bottom of the rocket as its engines screeched. Jade’s head spun. This couldn't be it.

_Eight._

It wasn't, was it?

_Seven._

No, it couldn't be.

_Six._

Huge plumes of black smoke spewed from the engines, the black giving way to fire and white.

Jade could no longer remember her name. Her mind creaked to a halt; her eyes darkened. Beneath her, the world had fallen away. The rest of the words barely came to her, struggling to reach her ears through her foggy head.

_Five._

_Four._

_Three._

_Two._

_One._

_Zero. All engines running._

With proud finality, the engines spat huge stretches of white fire, screaming through the air. The world shook, and cried, and shifted, as the shuttle broke apart the scaffolding and tore itself from the trembling earth. Jade’s world was consumed by the angry red and white and yellow, but her eyes never left the ship that was now rising patiently, slowly, in a whorl of color, into the sky. She didn’t know how long she stood until it was but a white speck in the open blue above, a trail of frozen shuttle-cloud left behind. Over and over, she imagined Cat being crushed by the vicious gravity; she replayed episodes of her wife struggling to stay awake as the pain pierced her skin, gnawing her bones. She saw those tiny little fists balling up, heard her pained cry, saw the tears melt into the pillow, and felt her own heart clench. _I've got you, sweetheart._ She begged Cat to hear her voice. _I've got you._ She knew, somehow, that Cat had heard her; but her words had done nothing to ease her own agony.

When she could stand to look no longer, so beside herself was she, Jade stumbled backwards and supported herself against the wall. Her hot tears were finally released, and they splashed upon the ground like delicate meteors.

* * *

**27 OCTOBER 2024. THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD.**

A week after, Jade drove home from work in the usual way. The radio was on, tuned to her favorite station, but her fingers didn’t tap the wheel; her voice never opened in song. She focused stolidly on the road ahead, only diverting attention from time to time to peek at the shimmering moon.

At red lights, Jade had adopted the habit of leaning against the wheel or the door in whatever way afforded her the best angle of the moon through the windshield. She would stare at it for as long as she could, sometimes longer, willing the moon to return her wife, until a torrent of honks sounded behind her, cowing her into shuffling forward again - though her eyes never did truly leave the moon.

She had heard it on the television when Cat had taken the first steps. Jade's nose had been pressed right up against the screen, and she was on her fifth cup of coffee of the evening because she was expecting Cat's call at three in the morning. The day that Cat had landed, Jade hadn't left the television for more than two seconds lest she miss something important. When it was finally time, and Cat had made her landing, and she had finally come to, Jade knew what she was about to hear Cat say. She had broken into a tearful grin, watching her wife descend the side of the shuttle, remembering the promise Cat had made that day in detention ten years ago. Jade affectionately recalled Cat's declaration - and, sure enough, as her foot had crunched down upon the moon's silver surface, there was a pause before Cat had exclaimed - 

_"Oh my God, I'm on the moon!"_

Jade smiled fondly at the memory. No matter how smart Cat was, she never failed to let her whimsical, playful side shine through, even when the matter at hand was as significant as setting foot on the moon.

Presently, Jade slowed her car at another red light and heaved a long, heavy sigh as she settled against the car door, gazing upon the white pearl above. She was pondering it, manipulating it in her head, turning it over and over as if it were nothing more than a marble. She imagined turning it to its bottom, the south pole, and finding her little Cat there, ready to be embraced. Jade smiled softly.

And then her smile, and her body, stiffened with resolve.

Jade knew if Cat had been there, she would have been in for an earful. But Cat _wasn’t_ there, and Jade was desperate. Not waiting for the light to turn green, and not waiting for the cars rushing past to slow, she clenched the wheel and shot forward amid honking complaints of the cars that grazed her bumper as she streaked past. She must have gone twenty miles above the speed limit, and nothing short of a miracle kept the police at bay. Soon, she was driving up the highest hill she knew in LA. The engine complained, but she gritted her teeth and floored the accelerator stubbornly until her frontmost wheels edged upon the tip of the hill. She parked her car as fast as she could and leaped out of it, and she stood there, alone, as close to her lover as she could be, perched there upon the hill.

Her chest was heaving. She was staring intently up at the moon as if willing it to return Cat to her, and it only shined sullenly back at her. She squinted her eyes the best she could, trying to imagine Cat as a tiny little speck, trekking across its surface, but to no avail. She couldn’t command her lover into her vision. She couldn’t remember the last time she had felt so alone.

She lifted her hands and cupped them around her mouth.

_“I love you, Cat!”_ she screamed.

She heard it echo against the dome of Earth. She hoped her words had streaked past and broken its thick atmosphere, flying upwards to the moon. It was her only hope, and she clung to it.

“I love you,” she whispered. Her knees crumpled beneath her, and she fell apart into sobs.


	3. Stars

**24 DECEMBER 2024. SOME PLACE OFF THE COAST OF HAWAI’I WHOSE NAME JADE COMPLETELY FORGOT BECAUSE OF THE ADRENALINE.**

  
  
  


“Fuck,” Jade muttered. “Fuck, fuck, fuck. Fuck fuck.”

Fuck, indeed. She tore down the highway and left steaming streaks of rubber behind her each time she screeched around a bend. It was midnight, and if Cat had been there _(Cat! Oh, Cat!),_ she would’ve had a lot to say about how Jade was driving right now. But Jade couldn’t drive quickly enough. She had to _be_ there. She _had_ to. _Fuck!_

She hadn’t slept the entire night. She was sitting in her hotel room in Hawai’i, on her twenty-first cup of coffee, when the call from the flight director had come - Cat was on her way, in a little space capsule, to pierce the Earth’s atmosphere and come barrelling down into the ocean. Jade had immediately snatched up her keys and was out of the hotel in seconds.

Presently, she screeched to a halt where she saw a group of news and radio stations setting up. The NASA helicopter rose into vision, and Jade knew she was in the right place. She parked her car and jumped out of it, slamming the door and pushing past the swarming cameras and microphones. She had to find the flight director.

“Hestia 24, due to arrive,” Jade heard near the edge of the beach, and she ran to it, gasping for air as she came skidding to a stop next to the flight director.

“Fawkes!” Jade wheezed. “Fawkes, where is she?”

“Jade! I’m happy you could make it in one piece,” Fawkes smiled, reaching up to mute his microphone.

“Wish I could say the same for the various people and animals I probably ran over on my way here.” Jade shook her head frantically and focused on the issue at hand, peering up into the dark sky and squinting to see if she could catch a glimpse of the capsule.

“She hasn’t broken the atmosphere yet,” Fawkes said when he noticed her behavior. “But everything’s right on track. You can breathe.”

“I am _not_ going to breathe until my wife is back on Earth!” Jade spat angrily. Fawkes only laughed; at this point, with so many years of Jade West under its belt, it seemed as if the entirety of NASA was equipped to deal with her venom. “How much longer?”

“Not much. We’ll board the ship in fifteen minutes.” Fawkes gestured to the huge vessel that was moored to the docks, and Jade swallowed thickly. She’d always hated boats. But she had to be there for her wife.

Fifteen minutes passed achingly slowly, and Jade paced the beach the entire time. It was with great relief that she heard her name being called as Fawkes, along with the rest of the crew, began making their way to the boat. Jade ran the length of the dock and hoisted herself up the rungs of the ladder to the boat, slapping away the hand of the man who tried to help her. She raced to the front of the boat immediately and grasped the rail, feeling the piercing sting of the salty sea against her face. The wind whipped her hair, and she barely heard the sound of the ship’s horn as it blared before they pushed off the dock, setting off full steam ahead.

“Jade,” a voice sounded behind her, and she whipped around to see Fawkes’s friendly face.

“Fawkes,” Jade acknowledged impatiently, turning her eyes back to the dark waters. The waves were brimming with moonlight as they rushed past the sides of the boat, crashing up against the bow. “Shouldn’t you be in the control room monitoring her landing?

“I told the others to keep track of it. I figured you needed someone to tell you what’s going on in real time while you keep a lookout.”

Jade eyed him again suspiciously before turning once more to the ocean. “Okay, but if anything happens to my wife because you’re here, you’re dead.”

Fawkes chuckled. “Don’t worry. She’s in good hands.” He paused before adding, hesitantly, “She’s broken the atmosphere.”

 _“What?!”_ Jade snarled, snapping her eyes immediately to the sky above. She craned her neck and squinted, trying to pick out the glimpse of a capsule in the moonglow.

“Calm down,” Fawkes said, shaking his head. “You won’t be able to see her yet.”

“Is she okay?”

"Requesting status update on Catarina West," Fawkes rumbled into his microphone, listening intently before affirming the receipt of the message and muting his microphone. “She’s unconscious. She’ll probably wake up soon, but for now, all we can do is track her.”

Jade’s heart lurched from her chest. She turned back to the bright ocean and felt her throat close up. For the first time in she didn’t know how long, she shut her eyes - and prayed.

“She said something before she lost consciousness,” Fawkes said offhandedly as he took his place at Jade’s side, looking out upon the starry sea calmly.

“Well?” Jade snapped impatiently when he didn't continue, her eyes flying open. “What was it?”

“She said, ‘I know she knows already, but tell my Jadey I love her - to the moon and back.’”

Jade wasn’t sure if it was the sudden gust of wind that knocked the breath out of her lungs. She gripped the railing so tightly that her forearms went numb. If somebody were to ask her about it in a few years’ time, she would say that the tears dewing in the corners of her eyes were from the sting of the beating wind and nothing more. But in her heart of hearts she knew that when she would be reliving this moment tomorrow, she would be rifling through the NASA footage archives, just to hear Cat desperately breathe those words to Mission Control.

“Fawkes,” Jade breathed, as if realizing it for the first time, “she is the _only one.”_

“She’s coming home to you, Jade,” Fawkes said, placing a hand on her shoulder. But Jade had stopped listening, and her eyes had fixed intently on some distant spot in the sky.

 _“Cat!”_ Jade yelled suddenly, pointing intently at some pinprick hidden among the bowl of shimmering stars. _“Fawkes, it’s Cat! She’s there!”_

“What?” Fawkes said, his eyes darting about the dark expanse. When he didn’t seem to find it, Jade groaned in exasperation, grabbed his face, and pointed. Sure enough, if Fawkes squinted his eyes very hard, he could make out a minuscule particle that was steadily descending. His eyes bulged. “Oh, my God!”

Within milliseconds, he was rushing to the command room, shouting into the microphone about how near she was. It took everything in Jade not to launch herself into the ocean to meet her. She pressed up against the rails and didn’t let her eyes leave the approaching star that had suddenly exploded with the distant sound of a parachute opening. Jade’s heart was racing so fast that her head spun, but she kept her footing strong and chewed her nails. _Be okay, be okay, be okay, be okay._ Every lurch the capsule gave sent her blood churning. She couldn’t feel it when the ship veered and pitched freezing water all across the boat, drenching her hair and clothes. She only gripped the rail tighter and prayed. Before long, the capsule was rocketing further down, and Jade’s heart went higher and higher as it came lower and lower. At her heart’s crescendo, Jade saw the capsule rocket into the ocean, crashing loudly and spraying water across the sky. It was about two miles away - so near, so auspicious, so _heart-stoppingly terrifying._ Jade tore across the boat and ran into the control room, slamming the door open to the men and women crouched in front of the numerous blinking screens.

 _“Hurry the fuck up!”_ she yelled gracefully. Some heads turned to her in mild shock, but the others ignored her and continued typing diligently away at their computers; the captain dutifully increased the boat’s speed, and the engine hummed louder.

Fawkes attempted to calm Jade down, but she shrugged him off. “We have to get there!” she cried, gently shoving Fawkes away. “Is she okay? Is she awake?”

“We’re getting there. She’s not too far away, okay? We’ve got this under control.” Fawkes swept a hand through his hair nervously. “She’s… still unconscious, but other than that, she’s okay.”

Jade’s heart dropped. She couldn’t breathe.

“We have medics on the boat. A helicopter will come out to open the hatch on the capsule, and then we’ll come pull her onto the boat. You’ll be the first to greet her, I promise.”

“I don’t care how it happens,” Jade choked out. “Just get her here. Safe.”

In less than a minute, the boat had sidled up mere feet from the floating capsule. Jade rushed to starboard and leaned over the rails, her heart in her throat. There was the capsule. It was so big, too big for her tiny Cat. She wondered what Cat felt like in there, curled into a ball, resting. The capsule was bobbing and jostling the water. Jade’s heart broke. It looked helpless. She willed the ocean to still.

Jade hadn’t even heard the helicopter as it descended, stopping for but a moment to let a woman off its side. She watched the woman swim to the capsule and clamber up its sides to the hatch, where the woman heaved and, without much effort, loosened the top. It was discarded quickly. Jade was suddenly shoved aside by a group of men and women who filtered off the side of the boat, and she was going to protest when she saw the words _“NASA PARAMEDIC”_ emblazoned on their backs. She descended into prayer once more as they jumped into the water and swam to the hatch.

And as Jade watched, she felt her heart burst: at the hatch, the helicopter woman had reached into the capsule and begun hoisting out a limp, small Cat, whose head lolled forward against the woman’s shoulder. Jade felt the world swimming around her. Darkness pulsed at the edges of her vision, threatening to bleed over. She felt her slowing heartbeat in her ears, sweat beading on her neck.

The head paramedic had found his way to Cat and was bent over her, apparently checking for vitals. It took but a minute, and soon, he lifted his stony eyes to the boat, making eye contact with Jade before the rest of the NASA crew, who were all waiting anxiously behind her.

He gave a curt nod, and a thumbs up.

Raucous, heady cheers and whoops and hollers sounded behind Jade, and she cried and felt she might faint at that very moment. But she put it off and steeled herself, calling out to the paramedic to hurry. They swam the still-sleeping Cat to the rungs of the boat’s ladder, and Jade’s anticipation mounted, her head wheeling. She had been waiting for so long.

It wasn’t difficult for the head paramedic to hold Cat to his chest as he ascended the ladder, nor was it difficult for Jade to snatch her right from him as soon as she was level with her. She didn’t care that the medics protested. She grasped her and couldn’t believe it was real, couldn’t believe it was Cat, couldn’t believe she was alive. Jade didn’t dare squeeze her as tight as she wanted to for fear it would crush her. So she simply weeped joyfully as she held Cat, and weeped more as she felt Cat’s strengthening breaths, watching her eyes flutter open, watching her give a weak, dazed smile - the brightest and most jovial smile Jade had ever seen from her. When Cat lifted her weak hand to Jade’s cheek and breathed “Jadey” against her lips and kissed her; oh, it was everything.

The crew members had to separate them from each other so that Cat’s health could be tended to. Her blood pressure was dangerously low, and she had been carried away from a protesting Jade on a stretcher; though Jade soon "convinced" (which was her word to describe it) the crew to let her stay by Cat’s side, at least. And when Cat was finally stable, she sat up in the gurney and couldn’t say much, no matter how much she tried; so she kissed Jade instead, grabbed her by the shirt and kissed her hard, raising a quivering hand to the back of her neck to pull her closer. Jade whispered everything she had been dying to tell Cat from the moment she had set foot in the rocket up until this point, gasped it against Cat’s lips when they would part briefly, only to come crashing together again. And they cried and laughed because they couldn’t find the resolve inside themselves to stop kissing, even if it was in front of all of the medics.

The boat was stationary for about an hour before Cat was back on her feet. Wobbly feet, but feet nonetheless; she clung to Jade’s arm and staggered out of the infirmary room to the cheers of the crew on the boat. Cat squealed joyfully and raised her arms as they greeted her; Jade, knowing what was about to happen, encircled her waist with her arms just as she lost her footing. Cat giggled and wrapped her arms around Jade’s neck to kiss her cheek.

“I love you,” Cat whispered, and Jade was so overcome that she simply kissed her again, and told her that she loved her, too.

The crew sat Cat down and began to question her at length about her travels. They had all received the data and numerous reports she had written and sent to them, but it was much more inspiring to hear it from the source; besides, who wouldn’t want to hear Cat speak? She talked of the craters and the world; she told stories of ice and darkness. She made appropriate hand gestures and sound effects, at one point making a big _kablooie!_ when she described how she had messed up in setting up a light near her camp. Anyone watching wouldn’t have guessed that this was the woman who held PhDs in physics and aerospace engineering, both before she had reached the age of twenty-two.

 _My little genius,_ Jade thought fondly as she listened to Cat’s tales, holding onto every word. She was standing by her side and had her arm rested upon Cat’s shoulder, and occasionally, their gazes would meet with a shy sort of affection, the same way their gazes had met when they’d first dated, and again when they’d gotten married. It was as if Cat’s homecoming had imbued a rebirth in their affections; they had shed the domestic serenity of the two-months-ago kind of love. A new season had embarked, and it was shimmering with freshness, ready to burst.

“Jadey! The pier!” Cat suddenly exclaimed, jerking Jade from her thoughts. Indeed, in the pale glow of the rising sun, the pier was coming into view. Beyond it, the mountains were clothed in the rosy light, and the beach, covered completely in swarming people, shimmered back at the ship. Cat jumped unsteadily to her feet, grabbing onto Jade as she began to stumble to the front of the boat. Jade led her there, pushing past the crew, grinning. Cat clutched the rails as soon as they made it, beaming out to the crowds of people who surely couldn’t see her yet. “They’re all so lovely,” Cat smiled, looking up at Jade in awe.

“They’re here for you, princess,” Jade smiled. Cat gasped, as if she was just now realizing this.

“Oh my God!” she whispered, lifting a hand to her mouth. But as she did, her knees buckled, and Jade’s arms shot out to capture her just before she could fall. Cat clung to Jade as she hoisted her up bridal style in her arms, grinning.

“Don’t you dare try standing again. You’ve still got moon legs,” Jade chuckled, nuzzling her nose. Cat giggled, wrapping her arms around Jade’s neck, and snatched her lips up in a soft, impassioned kiss. Jade exhaled as she felt relief wash over her, the tension flowing out with each breath she took.

“Happy anniversary,” Cat murmured after she broke away, and Jade smiled so brightly Cat thought she was in the presence of an angel.

“Happy anniversary,” Jade purred before she turned her head and deepened the kiss; and as the boat began to slow down next to the people-flooded docks, the pair felt the roses tossed towards them out across the water, felt them rush past and scatter petals about as citizens cheered and snapped photos from the docks. The flowers rained before them, cascading and tumbling around them as they kissed, and, yes, it was everything.

Cat beamed into the kiss, imagining what they would look like on the front page of all of the newspapers.


End file.
